We camp along a long-abandonned strip-mine, the perfect setting for our post-industrail lifestyle. It's me and the boys and Holly. We take an hour or two to visit the relatives and shop for the essentials, food food food and beer. We reach our destination around three loaded down, it takes two trips to get it all down. The campsite is just as we remembered it. The firehole has a few more random metal scraps from autumnal highschool scavenging and the chairs are partially dissembled for last-ditch fire scraps. Otherwise, it's camp sweet camp. We haul enough wood for a week long excursion, the forest is ripe for its first plundering of the new season, whole trees lie dead standing at our fingertips. I wondered as we plucked entire hulks from the ground if we were acting our part out in nature, clearing the ground of deadfall, making room for new trees to grow, or if at this point in history it was hard to justify even small-time logging operations. Back to a point I made in an earlier entry, it is easy to justify almost any action as genetically inspired; the reasoning that animals do it so it can't be all that bad, that somehow it's all quite natural. Seems to me that in current times your place in the world is based far more on location and environment than any genetic inclinations. Especially regarding tribal animals it is imperative to always weigh an individual advantage against a societal one, in other words, is this decision based on personal survival or survival of children and entire species. Maybe were supposed to work toward maximum fitness, not for ourselves, but for our entire alive environment.

We ate very well. A little too well. I ate so much I had to take a mile-long jog in the morning to pep up my engines, burn out some congealed grease. It was pleasureable too. I love garnering pleasure from my body through using it. It really likes to be used. It likes to be stetched and active, and to grow stronger. It's such a great system that you're rewarded with not only excellent health, but also an overwhelming sense of immediate joy and well-expended energy. It's sad that we're all getting fat, we've forgotten how good it feels to move, because it's so much easier to get happy eating. As I type I can feel my body yearning for a deep sleep to knit back muscles into stronger formations, it knows just which ones by how hard I used them. I should keep it up and get in shape. Stay away rain and let me get my bike out!

Oh god, Holly's mama was there, and she's just the best. So far she's made me three pecan pies, need I say more??? She decided to come out and eat dinner with us on Sunday-she ended up sleeping-over, tucked into Holly's tent with Cintra and the dogs. She's so funny, and it's so great when she tells a story and the girls take over side stories, all about life in small-town Smethport, PA. Hilarious.

I wanna talk about Chemistry and String theory for a minute too. About restructuring the mind to accept subatomic theory. Just think, wall to wall fuzzy guitar-strings! Must pee though... K, I'm back. Dislaimer for any who may understand a lot more about this shit than I: I have only taken a couple of chemistry/physics classes in my life, but I've read a slew of books about it. So chemistry tries to describe life through the interactions of molecules. They form bonds with one another and release various forms of energy, their combinations form everything in this room and the universe(?). Standard beginner models include circles on rings orbitting an inner core (think solar system) or you use their atomic initials, little dots representing electrons, and dashes between signifying bonds. It is a very useful model and it can be used to accurately predict real-world reactions. Along comes quantum theory, which cuts atoms to shreds and dissects the innards: quarks, neutrinos, etc. We find whole new properties (like spin and color), basically a new system for understanding chemistry at a primal(?) le
ve
l. We know we're on the right track because we can now "see" many of the predicted particles and their behavior through experiments (with telescopes and particle accelerators).

A paradigm shift is in the process, and these are the best times for revolution. If everything is the rippling of energy strings, operating under the uncertainty principle, flitting through space and anti-space, than isn't our chemical system a bit antiquated. Learning has many hurtles and a major one is counterintuition. If something is learned and then must be relearned under a new paradigm much energy is wasted in the unlearning. It is much better to incorporate new knowledge into the learning pool. God this is getting way to over the top, I sound like I'm preaching to a convention of college science professors. I still have more to say about the relationship of philosophy to science but will save it for a less exhasusted audience. Stop reading and go contemplate the endless beauty of an iris, they won't be here long.

Paul has changed it so you can email up to five attached images into your journal. Here is a pretty awesome example. YO!

So I've had these hives for over a week now, and am getting really annoyed. The symptoms are that I get itchy somewhere and if I scratch at all I get hives in the shape of the scratches, if I don't itch, nothing. I am somewhat prone to hives, if a cat or dog bites/scratches me or if I roll around in grass for an extended period I get hives, but his seemed a little extreme. So, I decide to look it u[ on the internet and find that my "condition" has a name: dermatographism. It sounds like tis could get annoying. They say that it can last for a week or two or for the rest of your life. Fun. There is no known cure unless the source of the irritation can be identified (which is usually very difficult) and histamine-blockers have a mild chance of preventing outbreaks if taken everyday. I guess I have to pray I have the week or two variety. They don't really have long term consequences or anything they are just annoying as fuck. Like I'm at work and scratch my face beofre I can stop myself and have an ugly red mark for an hour, I feel like a leper.

Anyways, the disturbing coincidence happened when I was looking up the disease and there was a picture of what it looked like:



Fucking bizzare right! Freaked me the hell out. Anyways, feel sorry for the leper and now when you see me with disgusting red blotches all over you know I don't have scabies or AIDS or something.

thoug my head wonders if it should be thanking you for the pounding it's experiencing now. :) Went to Presba, a bar I had heretofore not even heard of, which was cool and played extrememly cool music (we walked in and were greeted with Joga by Bjork). The pizza was yummy yummy yummy. The band at the Square was pretty neat rock and rolly, I didn't really get to see them, as is usually the case. Camping is today. I am very excited. I love to camp. First time in the new summer it has to be wonderful.

First-off, I don't know the guy at all. He is probably really swell and making some neat science-art. But, I have to say that I am not sure that just anyone should be able to play with strange bacterias (are claims of Anthrax true?). However well meaning the person is, they are not all benign substance; I wouldn't want my neighbor making art with explosives next door either. So, while I feel for him that he is going through some horribly scary shit, I can't say that he shouldn't have expected it. Of course, the scale of what happened is ridiculous. Cordoning an entire neighborhood off and carting away his dead wife's body was probably not necessary (though as Paul says, in some cases of public safety it is probably better that the Buffalo police not handle it and specialized teams be brought in). I also am pretty sure that he won't get anything like a fair trial and that he is probably suffering more than is necessary because of our draconian new terror laws, and that sucks.

The New York Times is often described as being our nation's paper of record, meaning that it is trusted above all others to deliver the news of the day. They have recently suffered many blows, the most covered being the Jason Blair "scandal". The truth is that Jason Blair was the least of their problems. In a self-accusatory article (you need a membership), the Times has tried to come-clean over it's coverage of the Iraqi WMDs. Since the prewar attempts of the Administration to build the case for war they have been on the bandwagon, parroting lines and calling on official sources as often as possible. One of their top correspondents, Judith Miller (Democracy Now! has been talking about her for months and months now), was at the forefront, delivering "news" about the developing story. One of her most frequent sources was Ahmad Chalabi the now scandal-ridden friend of Bushco who has apparently taken everybody for a ride. The question now is whether this will incite some real change. Was the admission of guilt a lame excuse to soothe ruffled feathers or is it the precursor to a new-era of truth-telling? We shall see, though as usual I have little optimism.

I am being deliciously devoured by the tongue of Hermann Hesse. He makes me ache. I truly hear the surly call of waves splashing their foamy essence upon kelp-encrusted rocks. I fly with the gaze of a young man finding his soul in opal-green glaciers. The boom of reverberating waterfalls cleanses my soul of worldly tedium.

I used to sit in the park for hours and read this one short story (novelle to be exact) over and over. It was called Iris. Everyone should read it, though I can't guarantee that the English translation delivers its true beauty. It's the only story that I've read out loud to myself. He writes so beautifully that I need to hear each word roll off my tongue to savor its meaning and relation to the text. The first whole part is solely composed of a boy experiencing the delights of his mother's garden. As the name implies, he is particularly obsessed with the iris. He stares into the depths of its goblet and imagines himself transported into a fairy realm, walking between the rows of golden stamen to reach the farthest reaches, where unspeakable glory is enthroned. It's a moral of growing up, of learning the lessons of childhood, forgetting them while gaining adult experience, and realizing that what was lost is the only thing worth living for. Just thinking about it takes me to such a special happy place... ahhhh. Bliss, true bliss.

cursion, that is. My long semi-lost friend Brian has reappeared in the localhood. He is performing in a little town called Auburn, just a hop, skip, and 100 miles from here. He's doing a fabulous rendition, I'm sure, of Forever Plaid, a whimsical musical comedy taking you down memory lane, that is, if you're over 50. The show was sold out by the time we got there so we had to forgo the pleasure. We did have a very fun minication in an obscure region in Western NY. I have to pause for a minute, thundastorms are ablarin'. Back in a jiff.

Wow, the booms and crackles are amazing. Very stormy lately, we drove through one last night on our way back from Syracuse. Anyways, we picked Brian up in Auburn and went to eat in Skaneatles (prounounced: skan-atlas), which is a little finger-lake resortish town with many orange-dyed yuppies in mini-skirts and prom-decked teens. We ate at a place overlooking the lake which was quite pleasant; food wasn't half bad and the beer was pretty tasty. We got back to Auburn and had a couple hours to spare and decided to hop on down to Syracuse to do a little bar-hoppin'. We got to one bar and it was raining and Syracuse appeared to be an even more run down town than Buffalo so we headed home. We spent the night on the floor, it was not as fun as it sounds.

The next morning I said tootle-oo and break-a-leg
to Brian and we headed home. It was good seeing someone one from so long ago. We had such strange memories and gossips to share: who's married, pregnant, divorced, gay, in music, alcoholic...etc. Old friends are good to have. We decided to jaunt over to Seneca Falls because Paul insisted we had seen it and it was great. I remembered it only vicariously through its historical significance as playing a major role in the "women's movement". We got there and it was a nice enough town but there weren't any falls to speak of. We drove a while and realized we were halfway to Ithaca and I remembered what Paul was talking about: Taughannock Falls. This is actually pretty cool. It's a gorge right outside of Ithaca that was shaped by glaciers in the ice-age (so the placcard illuminates). They are the longest falls in NE America. Whoopie. We got a couple pics. Matt took most of them and claims copyright, so look to his journal.

Overall it was a great weekend. It really felt like a vacation even though it was just a weekend. Not too expensive, not too far, just perfect. Now, of course, it's back to the grind. At least I have fond weekend memories to carry me through.

Look out belooooowwww! Ker-splat! What is it? a little pigeon shit on your shoulder? Nope, it's the germ-warfare suicide pigeon . This is way cool. From the makers of James Bond we get the latest in the arsenal of stupid military tactics...

"The project was one of several suggested by the committee, which included at least four daring new uses for the pigeons in the event of a new, and probably nuclear, war. Military planners recommended: "A) Modernisation of balloon equipment for drifting pigeons silently into heavily defended areas. b) Possible dropping of pigeons by rocket. c) Training of pigeons to fly into searchlights armed with an explosive charge. d) Pigeons (plus foil or suitable equipment) used for radio location interference."

Here is my artistic rendering of a suicide-bomber pigeon:

bad taste, I know :)

I also like that the faq page is now in the front, kinda welcoming-like, but think that maybe the page should be subdivided so you can read about it, but also find out What's New. That way it's good for oldies and newbies alike.

the man at zoar, wasn't killed [inlink]paul,914[/inlink], but jumped to his death . They found a suicide note at his house and his parents said he had a history of depression. Well, I am glad at least that it wasn't a murder, since it's our favorite place to go in the summer. What a way to go. A few seconds of flight. If I ever killed myself I think I would do something similar, maybe out of a plane though.

Also, the black pastors defending "traditional" marriage from gay attack make me sick [inlink]paul,915[/inlink] [inlink]terry,119[/inlink]. The right to marry isn't a civil right? What about the right to marry a white woman if you want? Would you pastors mind if that right was denied you? It's just disgusting to me when minorities fight against each other when we should be together fighting the system keeping us all down.

Liz your dream sounds freaky. Especially the part about grandma. She shouldn't be hanging out in your scary dreams, she should be knitting and baking pies, not scaring you at the foot of the bed.

I had a dream this morning involving two other estrippers, paulnotpaul and trisha. It was very strange. We were packing or something, more like not packing since we kept forgetting what we were doing. The weirdest part of the dream was that paulnotpaul was wearing my body and i was wearing his. I don't know why, just that it was true. It wasn't quite fair cause he (in my body) was naked and I had clothes on. Anyway we were trying to pack the stuff and there seemed to be more and more stuff. Oh yeah Ronnie was somehow in the dream too and she had these white furry raver-type pants that she gave me. And trisha and I held them on top of the refreigerator and painted them jellow with spray paint so that I could wear them. Somehow the dog got into the paint and turned it all red (on the top of the refrigerator mind you) but then it was cool cause the red and yellow kinda looked like some strange cubist painting.